so we called it to let him know -- but it being saturday all we got was a machine. hopefully, since the legislature is in session although adjourned for the weekend someone is checking the messages periodically.

in any event, this serves as a good reminder to everyone that nows a good time to change all your accounts password.

we wish that these were higher quality snaps. the red-headed woodpecker is an extremely handsome bird. they were taken on the fly and as you can tell through a very dirty window. the only reason that our cam was within reach was because we had just completed uploading a couple of mourning dove vids.

29 March 2012

around 6:30 pm cdt on monday, 26 march 2012, we received another phone call from congressman rodney alexander.

fortunately, his office has -- at least this time, modified their caller id, call display information so that when "congressman rod" with an area code 318 number popped up on our caller id display, we pretty much knew that the call was either another one of his "live telephone town hall meetings" (we prefer the phrase telephonic town hall) or a political robo call, either one potentially blog-worthy. so we switched on our recording device.

one question that piqued our interest is around the 10:13 mark where the questioner from west monroe, la., wanted to know congressman alexander's stance on semi-automatic firearms and that one of his "real concerns is if obama is reelected, he's gonna do his darnedest to get those away from us."

congressman alexander said that he believes in the 2nd amendment and that he has "automatic firearms" in his house -- "and dont need to do anything to restrict it."

the interesting part is where the congressman says that:

"i even read an article today, not sure where it came from, i need to go back and check and see, that indicated that perhaps there is a very wealthy individual in the nation that is buying some of the firearms companies with the sole purpose of cutting back and restricting sales to individuals.

just limit the sales of the firearms companies to the government, police force or the military, so forth.

i dont know whether there is any validity to that or not -- but we do know that there are people out there including the administration that would like to see fewer firearms available to law-abiding citizens and i think it's clear that our forefathers and the founding document -- the constitution, clearly indicated that they felt like one should always continue to have the right to bear arms.

so, i'm there. i've got my lifetime nra card in my wallet right now and wont do anything, will not vote for any measure that dilutes the strength of the second amendment."

while we continue to oppose any and all forms of gun control or bullet control and believe that the citizenry should and must have access to the same firepower that the military and police has (or else what's the point of being armed?) our view of the second amendment and the right wing gun nuts is evolving.

The conservatives boast that they are honest people who are "tough on crime", but they are only tough on crimes that other people commit, especially people of other nations or races.

They are extremely lenient on the crimes that conservatives commit, such as financial fraud, pedophilia, price-fixing, and cheating on taxes.

Barney Frank was elected to Congress by liberals, so we cannot blame conservatives for that. However, an orphan boy testified in court that Frank was just one of many men in leadership positions who were raping orphan boys, but as far as I know, not one conservative proposed that the conservatives take their guns to Congress and arrest Barney Frank and all of the other pedophiles.

Why are the conservatives so tough on black people who smoke marijuana or use cocaine, but they don't do anything about the pedophiles in the government or the Catholic Church?

Incidentally, the issue of Barney Frank and pedophilia should be used as more evidence of how worthless it is to let citizens own guns.

There are millions of conservatives in America with guns, but when are they going to use them?

Crime is rampant in this nation, and corruption is everywhere in government, schools, businesses, and churches.

Larry Silverstein is still walking around freely in New York City.

When are the conservatives going to get together and use their guns to eliminate crime?

The answer is, never.

The conservatives are not interested in standing up to criminals, eliminating government corruption, or analyzing world events.

They want guns for defensive purposes only.

They are like a frightened animal that is hiding in the bushes.

They do not even have the courage to face Barney Frank.

Kay Griggs claimed that Henry Kissinger raped some American soldiers, but what do the conservatives do about that accusation? Nothing!

one instance in which we disagree with mr. hufschmid's analysis is that the reason american's do nothing about crime and especially corruption, is because they are psychologically disarmed.

this explains why americans have sat back for decades and accepted every unconstitutional, immoral, freedom killing law, rule, regulation and ordinance from the federal, state and local governments without so much as a whimper.

all this, despite being the most heavily armed and violent nation of people in the history of the world.

if that's not psychologically disarmed we dont know what is; we've said it before and we'll say it again: "america, land of the free and home of the brave," is just a meaningless marketing slogan.

28 March 2012

this is an interesting case in which pineville, la. businessman james bowlin is suing russell taylor, the city of pineville, the pineville chief of police and possibly others, for defamation and invasion of privacy.from what we can gather, it seems that mr. bowlin is dating mr. taylor's ex-wife and for whatever reason, mr. taylor doesnt appreciate that one bit.

so, mr. bowlin alleges, mr. taylor had someone as yet unknown (john doe) but presumably a friend of [taylor] on the pineville, la. police department inappropriately access a police database and passed the information contained there about mr. bowlin back to mr. taylor.

mr. bowlin claims that mr. taylor gave the information to some of his customers who stopped doing business with him.

additionally, some anonymous person postal mailed mr. bowlin a copy of the information gleaned from the police database.

the louisiana state police because they are the agency responsible for maintaining the database have the information that can show who logged in and ran the database search on mr. bowlin.

ninth judicial district court judge, harry f. randow it seems was attempting on behalf of the city of pineville to suppress and coverup the revelation of who on the pineville police force improperly accessed the police database as seen by his granting what turned out to be a bogus summary judgement dismissing mr. bowlin's claims as well as quashing the subpoenas he issued to the lsp.

but we wonder how judge randow would like it, if someone with access to a confidential police database printed out his file and mailed and passed it around because they were angry with some ruling he made in their case.

the third circuit court of appeal obviously wasnt amused with this type of behavior as they reversed judge randow's ruling and remanded the case for further proceedings.

James Bowlin (Bowlin) sued Russell Taylor (Taylor), the City of Pineville (Pineville), Terrell Paul and/or Donald Weatherford in their capacity as Chief of Police of the Pineville City Police Department (Chief), and Officer "John Doe."

Bowlin alleges Taylor defamed his good name and business reputation by publishing information about Bowlin allegedly improperly obtained from the Louisiana Justice Network's (Network) confidential database.

Bowlin maintains the information included his entire police record of arrests, charges, and convictions as well as personal information such as his social security number, date of birth, contact information, and driver‟s license number.

He alleges that only some of the information wrongfully obtained is also public record.

Bowlin is a small business owner in the Pineville area.

He alleges that Taylor has defamed his good name and business reputation and has invaded his right to privacy.

Bowlin and Taylor have a history of ill will which began when Bowlin started dating Taylor‟s ex-wife.

Bowlin alleges the confidential information was obtained for, and provided to Taylor, by an unidentified member of the Pineville City Police Department using police computers to access the Network‟s database.

Bowlin alleges he learned that an as-yet unidentified member of the Pineville City Police Department logged onto the secure website, obtained confidential information about Bowlin, and provided that information to Taylor.

Bowlin identifies his source of information at the Network as Detective Shelly Scott (Scott), an employee of the Louisiana State Police.

Bowlin alleges Scott informed him that she conducted an internal investigation into the inappropriate utilization of the database by an employee of the Pineville City Police Department who obtained the database information about Bowlin.

Bowlin asserts that Scott cannot provide any information on the matter until she is properly subpoenaed in a lawsuit.

Taylor maintains that the information mysteriously appeared in his mailbox one day from an unknown source.

actually, honeybees are preferable to carpenter bees that drill holes in every piece of wood they can find.

this gardner is convinced that honeybees are highly intelligent and can recognize human faces and we dont doubt that at all.

we can say that since we first noticed the wild hive in our yard that they've not stung or swarmed us. this could be because they are familiar with us as they see us around all the time.

one time last summer we brought in the hummingbird feeder to refill it and didnt notice that two honeybees had stowed away on the bottom until we got to the kitchen sink and they flew up into the window.

after we finished washing it out and refilling it we held the feeder up to them and they both hopped on and rode it back outside where we rehung it.

Looks to be accurate, but the news link I've found is in Russian, so there's some translation haziness to be had, so some of this might not be 100% definitive.

Best I can tell the accident occurred on the M-7 Highway in Russian near a village called Omutishi in the Petushinsky district of Russia, about 190 miles west of Moscow.

On February 12, 2012, about 6:20 p.m local time, a Nissan Navara SUV driven by a 32 year old Moscow resident identified only as Alexander did lose control, briefly made contact with what the article calls "a Gazelle" which I'm assuming is a make or model name of a vehicle or a translation quirk, and then drifted into the oncoming lane where it was hit head on by a Freightliner Big Rig. The driver of the SUV was killed and the driver of the Big Rig suffered moderate injuries.

I can't figure out exactly from the article where the video came from. The article mentions a "Office of Traffic Police" but I can't tell if that means it's a dashcam video from a police car or that's where the report is coming from.

Apparently this particular stretch of road is notorious for it's accidents, being the site of several deadly accidents in recent years, including a bus crash that killed 12 in 2009, a crash that killed a family of 3 in 2007 including a famous Russian actor named Aleksandr Dedjushko. ~ read more

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UPDATE-2 11 april 2012 youtube inexplicably banned this important video due to a vague "violation of community guidelines."

that's a shame too because nowhere in ACT 199 does it authorize the pineville mayor, city council or the department of transportation and development to name the kcs underpass anything other than the "fred h. baden underpass;"

the obvious question to have asked the mayor, the city council and dotd would have been: where do you all get off acting contrary to the law? when after all the louisiana legislature legislated and passed into law pursuant to article iii, section 2(A)(4)(b)(i) of the constitution of louisiana and the governor signed -- a simple one page bill -- which plainly says that the official, legal name of this structure is the "fred h. baden underpass," not some psychobabblistic-mumbo-jumbo of a "fred h. baden memorial gateway"?

what's more, they've unnecessarily squandered a fortune in taxpayer money on, among other things, landscaping, masonry work, lighting and light poles, paint and painters -- painting a bridge is not cheap, when what they should have done, if they were really fiscally responsible people, especially in these perilous times (for instance there is a report in today's town talk featuring pineville about how high gas prices "pose problems for public spending plans") was to have spent a few bucks on a couple of brass plaques and bolted them to the underpass and had an inmate go out there every morning to polish them with a $4.00 can of brasso and a rag.

the mayor and council with this ludicrous "gateway" facade scam has also obligated future generations of pineville taxpayers to have to shell out big money to maintain it just so.

what an insult to the memory of a man who was known for his fiscal thriftiness.

this "gateway" baloney makes even less sense than all the trashy electronic billboards the current mayor and council have encouraged and allowed to proliferate around town.

22 March 2012

on the second day of spring 2012 a perfumed prince is out harassing the commoners.

perhaps we would have some respect for the police if they were out investigating and arresting crooked politicians, elected and governmental officials, white collar criminals and other treasonous, traitorous rats who are destroying this country -- rather than spending all their time out writing "speeding tickets" to citizens who are merely attempting to get from point a to point b on roads that their tax dollars already paid for and upon which they have a right to travel.

21 March 2012

when we first posted about mayor roy's fourth supplemental and amending petition back on 24 january 2012 the mayor's petition wasnt on the rapides clerk of court website -- despite its being filed in november 2011.

it is on there now ... and wow! councilman roosevelt johnson is in deep trouble if the mayor can civilly prove not all but just some of his allegations.

if mayor roy wins, councilman johnson will likely have to "forfeit his office" and perhaps even face criminal charges;

not only councilman johnson but also councilman edward larvadain, iii and councilwoman mitzi gibson are named as co-conspirators.

it appears to be quite possible that mayor roy could have all three removed from office. wouldnt that be something?

shame, shame on gannett/the town talk and kalb for shirking their journalistic responsibly and instead suppressing and covering up the news of reporting this extremely important court filing concerning the inner workings of city of alexandria, la. government.

while this opinion is "not designated for publication," we cant imagine why louisiana's main stream media chose to suppress and cover up the reporting of it.

especially, considering all the braying they do over the importance of the states so called "sunshine laws."

the msm annually devotes an entire week to it; they refer to it as "sunshine week."

anyway, while this is a "not designated for publication" opinion what it does do is lay the groundwork for acquiring a copy of the actual audio recordings of court proceedings via a simple La. R.S. 44:1 et seq., public records request.

can you imagine what a boon this is to not only for main stream media but more importantly for bloggers and for other private citizens?

it's only a small leap to make that if the audio recordings of court proceedings are public record -- then court room observers must be allowed to bring in their own audio and video recording devices -- perhaps as long as it's done discreetly and unobtrusively. thankfully today's modern digital audio and video recording devices allows for this.

sooner rather than later most court proceedings will be streamed live online. technology, the modern era and louisiana's well earned reputation for judicial corruption and misconduct demands it.

it might help to to put a stop to the more flagrant violations if the judges as well as the attorneys knew that the public was watching.

so, the louisiana supreme court should stop making excuses and promulgate the rules and mechanisms necessary to make it happen.

props to honorable a. j. kling, jr., judge ad hoc, for getting it right at the trial court level.

17 March 2012

on 14 march 2012, in an unprecedented and historic event, the iranian parliament -- after twelve attempts, finally managed to summon president, mahmoud ahmadinejad, before it to answer some ten questions:

(1) the budget iran's subway was supposed to receive;

(2) the 1.6 million jobs the government claims to have created;

(3) the money that was supposed to have been redirected from subsidy reform to industry and agriculture;

(4) the president's eleven day sit-in that defied the orders of the leader regarding iran's intelligence minister;

(5) the president's comment on the parliament's power;

(6) the delayed nomination in appointing a sports and youth minister;

(7) the $1.2 billion dollars allocated to cultural affairs in the annual budget;

also, it's amusing how president ahmadinejad and mayor roy are so alike in how they are both arrogant and long-winded; yet are smart enough -- or perhaps blessed by good fortune, to manage time-and-time-again to make complete and utter fools out of their opposition.

we guess that politicians the world over really are all cut from the same cloth.

the petition of willie woods, self represented, takes to task city of alexandria, louisiana officials, especially councilman roosevelt johnson, over the ladies choice night club, which mr. woods claims violates several city ordinances and that "the process in which the city officials of alexandria allowed the lady's choice night club to open was flawed and reckless."

15 March 2012

from the looks of reading this motion, the courtroom of ninth judicial district court judge mary lauve doggett will be the place to be on monday, 30 april 2012, to view the proceedings in scott mahfouzs' motion to recuse judge george c. metoyer.

12 March 2012

click here to view video - click "next" to view even more more videos====

Rainfall totals of 10-15" of rain were common within a 20 mile radius of Carencro to Arnaudville over less than a 12 hour period leading to widespread flooding of hundreds of homes and businesses. read more: unprecedented flood for some areas

08 March 2012

Since the good Sheriff's office has seemingly come up with three different versions of the status of their investigative file, rather than wait for a response to our lawsuit, and in vigorous pursuit of our clients' interests, we have filed requests for record subpoenas to Jeanie Louque and Mayor Holden for records not only identified in Sgt. Pierce's Affidavit, but also, those records which one would think any genuine investigator conducting a genuine investigation would request.

note: this .pdf might open with the documents displaying sideways. depending on how your .pdf reader is configured, you might have to download it to your computer; then from the toolbar click: view; then rotate view; then counterclockwise.

06 March 2012

naturally, we're on the side of the plaintiffs, john randolph pierce and darrell wayne glasper, sr. and believe that the east baton rouge parish sheriff's office should turn over all the requested records.

one exception we take to the petition is at paragraph seven (7) where the plaintiffs incorrectly refer to their La. R.S. 44:1 et seq. Public Records Request (PRR) as a Freedom Of Information Act Request (FOIA).

a freedom of information act (foia) request is one made for federal public records. whereas, a public records request (prr) is one made for state and local governmental public records R.S. 44:1A.(1).

if you are an attorney or non-attorney public records requester, blogger, main stream media writer, etc., please properly differentiate between the two - it's important.

flip-flop or louisiana style good ol boy network damage control springs into action

"We consulted with other agencies which also received the complaint that concurred with our findings and were unable to substantiate the information," Hicks said. "Our investigation is complete pending any new information that would warrant further investigation."

meaning, that the requested documents, (other than the "initial report" (.pdf pages 20 - 22) which is always a public record (R.S. 44:3(4)(a)) and was provided), were now public records per R.S. 44:3A.(1), -- are not public records after all ... due to "the anticipated pending criminal investigation..." .pdf page 18.

note: this .pdf might open with the documents displaying sideways. depending on how your .pdf reader is configured, you might have to download it to your computer; then from the toolbar click: view; then rotate view; then counterclockwise.

04 March 2012

russian prime minister vladimir putin speaking to some of his supporters.reportedly, some 143 million voters cast ballots across nine time zones.exit polling indicates that putin won over 63% of the vote.aired from 0014 moscow time, monday 05 march 2012;1435 cst, sunday 04 march 2012.

Baton Rouge, Louisiana – On April 28, 2012, the Republican Party of Louisiana will hold district caucuses across Louisiana as the first phase of delegate selection for the 2012 Republican National Convention.

Republican voters will cast ballots at 30 sites from 8:30 am until 12:00 noon on Saturday, April 28, 2012.

Twenty-five delegates and twelve alternates will be elected from each congressional district to vote at the Republican State Convention, where the election of delegates and alternates to the Republican National Convention will take place.

Any Louisiana registered voter affiliated with the Republican Party on December 15, 2011 is eligible to participate.

Participants are not required to stay for a meeting in order to cast a vote.

Voters will be required to present a valid photo ID in order to cast a ballot.